Page 7 - Week 7

May 13, 2015

This week in the design laboratory we successfully 3D printed our scale version of our heart valve replacement, the valve is extremely thin and small. The heart valve is actually too small to connect the flaps to the base as we originally intended. So now we are creating a scaled up version, one which will be big enough to assemble and demonstrate our design during our presentation. All of the dimensions were increased approximately by a factor of two. The diameter is twice and large and the thickness is twice as large as well. The holes for the hinge were doubled so now they should actually be visible and we should be able to connect the flaps to the base. The files should be finished and sent out before the end of the lab and it should hopefully be completed in time for our presentation in week 10. Figure 1 below shows the disassembled parts of the 3-D printed aortic heart valve. In addition, it's placed next to a bottle cap to show how small the actual size of the heart valve is. Figure 2 below shows the assembly of the heart valve, but as mentioned before it is so small that it's difficult to actually assemble together, so a larger prototype will be built. 

Disassembled Parts of 3-D Printed Heart Valve

Assembly of 3-D Printed Heart Valve.

As a resolution to this problem, the group created an even new design: making the base ring much thicker, similar to that of the mechanical heart valves that are already implemented in replacement heart valve surgeries. In addition, everything was resized, that way the tangible prototype is much easier to show to others and 'toy' around with, if further adjustments are required. The flaps fit the base ring perfectly. Below are different angles of the official, final, and modified design, which will be 3-D printed once more.

Newly Designed 'Thicker' Base Ring

Newly Designed 'Thicker' Flap

Newly Designed Assembly

Sources:

[10] Ismaap.org, 'Large heart valves small heart valves', 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.ismaap.org/index.php?id=51&print=1&no_cache=1. [Accessed: 14- May- 2015].